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Converting color photos to black and white.

I know I’ve written about this before. Not all color to B&W conversions are the same. Some people create a B&W image by simply desaturating a color photo. While that certainly works, it usually leaves the image flat looking with a very poor dynamic range and tonality. There is an art to creating a good B&W conversion. One reason why is that you cannot convert all your color images to B&W the same way because different colors render differently when seen as shades of gray.

If you want to see why colors look different in B&W, I have a simple exercise for you. Below is a color image with one yellow panel and one blue panel. I’ve seen these colors on alternating fabric panels on a golf umbrella, so there’s a real world reason I picked them. Download this image to your computer.

colorb&w

Now, open this image in your photo editing software. Try different techniques to make it a B&W image. Try doing a simple desaturation, convert it to grayscale, a B&W mask, etc. If you notice, different methods of conversion will give you different results. Usually, just desaturating this image will make both panels look the same.

If this was a real photograph, you may be left with decisions to make. For instance, you may be able to get the yellow and blue panels to look good in B&W, but what about other elements in the photo? Did skin tones change? Did grass or leaves start looking unnatural? A good B&W photo may involve some compromises in order to get the best dynamic range and overall tonality. I suggest you try different techniques for different photos to see what you feel is best. Sometime a conversion method that works great on a portrait won’t work on a landscape.

Thanks for reading!

-Ken.